They’re fake likes from real people. (See: people who only like and follow in the hope you’ll return the favor.)

“Your hashtag-driven engagement is hollow —it’s not based on a true appreciation of your Clarendon-filtered work of art.”

But it’s not just that your hashtags lead to meaningless likes — they also may be trick you into thinking your content is actually good!

When you stop using hashtags, you’re left with only one way to improve your Instagram traction — you have to actually produce great content.

Because without the “magic” of hashtags, your content has to actually earn its engagement.

This can be a rough reality check at first, but ultimately gives you a true sense of whether your content is good, whether it’s improving, and whether you’re building an audience that cares about what you do.

Weaning yourself off the hashtag teat may be scary, but it will push you to improve your content.

I stopped using hashtags a couple months ago and while my account hasn’t taken off overnight, it has experienced steady growth, adding a couple hundred followers during that time.

That couple hundred followers may not seem like much — and it’s certainly not an overnight success story — but it’s real.

And that gives me a significant advantage compared to the misleading data I received back in the hashtag days.

I know these new followers are (for the most part) real.

I know they pay attention.

And I know my content is good enough to drive continued growth of my account.

All of that is more valuable than anything I ever got from a hashtag.

I’ve got one more thing for you (unless you’re a bot)…

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